France to abstain in Palestinian statehood vote at UN

France's foreign ministry has said it would abstain in the event of a UN vote on recognising Palestinian statehood as it has no chance of success. Last week France voted in favour of granting Palestine full membership in UNESCO.

REUTERS - France would abstain in a vote on a Palestinian request for full membership of the United Nations, the French foreign ministry said on Friday.

While France regarded the quest for Palestinian statehood as legitimate, the request for full U.N. membership had no chance of being accepted, notably because of U.S. opposition, the ministry said in an electronic media briefing.

“That is why, during a (U.N.) admissions committee meeting, France’s permanent representative at the United Nations said France would have no choice but to abstain in the Security Council,” it said.

The Palestinians had gone to UNESCO as a first step in their quest for statehood recognition in the over-arching U.N. system in September, which the Palestinians formally requested in September.

On Thursday, diplomats assembled at the G20 summit meeting in Cannes had suggested that several countries, including France, would abstain in a vote on that request.

The Palestinians’ foreign minister said on Thursday that they will not accept anything less than full U.N. membership and do not want an upgrade to an observer state in the world body.

The Palestinian bid for statehood recognition in the U.N. system has drawn fierce criticism and sanctions from the United States and from Israel, which in 1967 captured territory the Palestinians now seek for an independent country.

Both the United States and Israel say the Palestinian push in the United Nations is unilateral and an attempt to bypass peace talks, whose resumption Abbas has conditioned on an Israeli freeze of settlement activity in occupied territory.

The Palestinians say those negotiations have failed to bring them closer to the independent state they seek in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, and that it’s time try a different approach.